In the last years of Victoria's reign, London is beset by the "Touched": people — mostly women — who suddenly manifest abnormal abilities, some charming, some very disturbing. Among them are Amalia True, a mysterious, quick-fisted widow, and Penance Adair, a brilliant young inventor. They are the champions of this new underclass, making a home for the Touched, while fighting the forces of… well, pretty much all the forces — to make room for those whom history as we know it has no place.

15-year-old Rocks fears that she and her little brother Emmanuel will be taken into care and forced apart if anyone finds out that their mother has left them. Against all odds, and with the help of her loyal friends, she evades the authorities and navigates the most defining days of her young life.

The future looks bleak for today's youth - austerity, soaring house prices, student debt, a broken political system... And to add insult to injury, their hard-earned taxes are being eaten up by the elderly: smug, self-satisfied, small-minded, 'Little Englander' pensioners whose sole remaining purpose in life is to make it a misery for everyone else. In a small British town, tensions come to a head when a mysterious military convoy crashes outside the Sunnywise Retirement Home. The vehicles release a toxic substance, which leaks into the local environment and infects the residents of the retirement community. The symptoms of the infection quickly manifest: an overwhelming appetite for raw flesh. They're old, they're angry and they're on the rampage. As the military scrambles to control the outbreak and keep everything out of the media spotlight, a group of regular teenagers find themselves in the thick of the battle against these flesh-eating baby boomers.